SURELY NONE IS MORE EXCELLENT IN ITSELF AND ITS RESULTS, THAN THE POWER WHICH HAS BECOME THE RIGHT OF EVERY WOMAN WHO HAS THE MEANS TO ACHIEVE IT –
OF BECOMING HER OWN UNESCORTED AND INDEPENDENT PERSON, A LADY TRAVELLER.Lillias Campbell Davidson, Hints to Lady Travellers: At Home and Abroad

Thursday 8 December 2011

Advent 2011: Door 8

Today's hint comes from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writer, traveller and all-round broad-minded person. In the early 18th century she accompanied her husband, ambassador for the Court of St James to the Ottoman Empire, to Constantinople. Her stories - of hammams, smallpox parties and cultural differences - are fascinating and funny. Her hint - well, less of a hint and more of an observation - is this:

"We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic."

But I think she and I would agree: better to be thought a fabulous and romantic Lady Traveller than a dull and unobservant one.

(Lady Mary Wortley Montagu by Charles Jervas; painting at the National Gallery of Ireland)

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About Me

I'm a peripatetic (I always wanted to write that) museologist.
Originally from Ireland, I'm
travelling the world in search of adventure. On this blog, I'm channelling the spirit of Victorian lady travellers who fearlessly braved the unknown ... while taking care not to show any flesh above the ankle.
I write about the interesting places, beautiful things, inspiring books, noteworthy food and curiosities I encounter as I go. Oh, and sometimes there are hints.